Interview with the manager of the legendary Moriarti PAMM account

Many people already know that the Alpari PAMM service has registered a new record. One of the PAMM accounts showed a return of 166,700%. This result was achieved by the manager over the course of the account’s 5-year lifetime, but saw a sharp increase in profitability of about 300% in the last couple of weeks of March 2020 due to large-scale volatility in the market and the right strategy. This is further confirmation that in a time of instability on global financial markets, investing in PAMM services can provide an opportunity for significant earnings.

With this in mind, we’re pleased to present you with an interview that we held with the manager of the record-breaking Moriarty PAMM account!

How do you manage to keep trading successfully over the course of so many years?

I first got introduced to trading and financial markets back in 2003. Since then, I have been trading continuously. I started out with a demo account, but a month later I switched to a funded account with a small deposit. For about three years, I traded successfully with a strict system in place using small deposits. In 2007, I became a client of Alpari, and moved all my trading there while simultaneously increasing my deposit, having gained confidence in the trading system I was using. However, in accordance with Sod’s Law, I entered a downturn after a few months, and then I started making psychological mistakes and stopped following my system so strictly. As a result, I lost all my savings, which was about 10,000 USD. That was a decent amount of money back then. I went through a lot of stress and a personal crisis in this regard, which lasted for several months. In parallel, I continued trading on the demo account, and tried to learn from my mistakes. After a while, I switched back to funded accounts. I started testing different trading strategies with varying degrees of success. Some made a profit, others performed worse. Then I became interested in PAMM accounts and decided to apply my experience in managing investor funds. I realized that the best technical indicators are support and resistance levels, and that I needed to build a system based on this. At the end of 2014, I opened the Moriarti account, where I traded based on channels built around key levels. Over the course of a few years, I eventually abandoned the channel system, and opted to only keep track of important support and resistance levels. I also added some fundamental analysis to my system.

What emotions did you experience when the drawdown started?

Any drawdown is always an unpleasant feeling, especially when it’s growing quite quickly. At the beginning of the steep decline, the volume of open positions was relatively small and this did not cause me much concern. In addition, there were open positions on various instruments, so I felt calm. But on the 18th of March, there was a sharp 600-pip drop on the GBPUSD pair that came out of nowhere. I believe that few people expected such a rapid collapse of one of the world's leading currencies, given the steep fall of the previous days by an additional 1,000 pips. Naturally, this affected the PAMM account, as I expected to see a breakout of this historical low followed by a quick return to the daily opening price. But this didn’t happen. Meanwhile, by the day’s close, the drawdown was already about 50% and continued to increase in the following trading days. Investors were very worried, and nerves were at an all-time high.

How did you manage to overcome the crisis and get back on top?

In the following trading days, I recorded a loss on the GBPUSD pair and switched to gold. I expected to see a continuation of the downward trend that had formed over the past week. But I was wrong again. Another unsuccessful transaction led to a drawdown of about 85%. I cut my losses and went back to the pound. I started thinking that it would be impossible to fully recover, but I tried not to think about it and focused on further transactions. We should keep in mind that there is always a chance to recover, even with a 99% drawdown. I guess that thought helped me somewhat. It wasn’t possible to overcome this difficult situation immediately, but it was faster than I expected. Surprisingly, it was thanks to the GBPUSD pair that I managed to recover, as I took advantage of the high volatility on this pair over the next couple of days. A series of successful trades led to rapid growth and a new all-time high on the PAMM account.

What trading strategies do you use?

I don’t use a trading strategy with strict entry and exit rules. When opening and closing trades, I focus on the support and resistance lines and on the 4-hour charts and above. As a rule, I open on a rebound from these levels. The longer the line is timewise and the earlier it starts, the more reliable the signal and the larger the position with which I enter the market. I also use fundamental analysis for long-term transactions. In difficult situations, I search my feelings based on what is happening and my trading experience. As I mentioned above, I have been working on funded accounts since 2003, and I analyze quotes and charts on a daily basis. Perhaps I’ve developed a sort of 6th sense of the market over the last 17 years. This seems to help me in the most difficult moments.

How much time do you spend on trading? Describe your normal working day.

As a rule, I open long-term transactions on my PAMM account, which may not be closed for several months. In normal trading, I try to stay in the trend as long as possible and make the most out of one high-quality signal. As such, I don’t spend much time at the trading terminal. This is more psychology than trading. It’s important to learn to wait and not jump out of positions ahead of time. In difficult situations, I often change my tactics and switch to active mode. In this case, I set aside all other things and pay maximum attention to trading.

Do you feel pressure from managing so many funds? How do you cope with stress?

Of course, the more funds under management, the higher the responsibility of the manager. Psychological stress, especially during drawdown periods, is always there. It’s important to control your emotions and make only informed decisions on transactions. During periods of deep drawdown, the pressure increases significantly, while the flow of negative messages to the manager increases on the forum. I try to pay attention only to constructive criticism. There are also tips on deals and forecasts on the market situation, which can sometimes even affect the manager's trading decisions. It is important to stick to your plan, because the manager is always responsible for the PAMM account. When managing a large deposit, you need to be able to cope with the stress that comes with it. Sports help me in this. In winter, I go cross-country skiing several times a week, and in summer I enjoy exercising out in the fresh air.

If you are a beginner, what is the best way to start learning trading?

First of all, you should start with a demo account. It’s important to get acquainted with the trading terminal, learn how to open and close trades, set limit orders, and learn all the nuances and subtleties. Automate all actions that you can. You should feel like a fish in water. Once you’ve done this initial setup, you can start studying trading directly. I will not recommend any literature, because it is unlikely that you will learn anything from books. Instead, I recommend trading forums, webinars, and training courses. Proceed immediately to testing different trading strategies. It’s important to find one that you like. Try it on a demo account with various parameters of the indicators. It doesn't make sense to use a large number of indicators — no more than two or three at a time. There are a lot of trading strategies, so it’s important to find one that you feel comfortable with. It’s also important to test your strategy according to historical data. You should do this for at least the last 5 years, or better yet, 10 and above, and see how your strategy pans out. If everything suits you, then launch the strategy on a real account with a minimal deposit. But this is not the most important thing in trading. This is only the first stage. Then psychology comes into play. You need to adhere to the established rules. And in fact, it is psychological stability that is the most difficult thing in trading. Fear and greed drive traders, and it’s important to learn to control these emotions. But this is the next stage of development, which can only be learned by independent discipline.

Examples of such incredible success, like that seen by today’s interviewee, are a great source of inspiration for investors across the world. Join us today to get the most out of your funds!

Best regards,
Alpari

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